Mirza
Asadullah Khan Ghalib is regarded as the greatest South Asian Poet of Urdu-a
language which is widely used and understood in entire region. He is also a
Poet of Persian and a prose writer both in Urdu and Persian with a unique and
distinct style of his own. As a Persian Poet he is well-known in Iran and Central
Asia also. Actually, his ancestors hailed from Transoxiana, a part of Central
Asia and migrated to India in the middle of the 18th Century some fifty years
before his birth. Ghalib lived in Delhi during the twilight of the Mughal rule
in the Sub-Continent as a Poet and writer was a ture and most authentic
representative of the central tradition of the literary and cultural history of
the period.
As
the greatest Poet of the 19th century, Ghalib has not only been a constant
subject of literary criticism in the 20th century but has also attracted wide-spread
attention of the common reader of Urdu who loves, admires and quotes him
whenever he can even without having read or understood him thoroughly. No other
Urdu Poet dominates the literary scene in the same way and lives in the hearts
and minds of people as Ghalib. His charisma as a Poet in the literary world of
the Sub-Continent is unprecedented and unmatched.
Ghalib
had a strong personality and he was conscious of it. This consciousness was
responsible for Ghalib's urge to express himself in his own individual manner.
So he deviated from the tradition of Urdu Poets and gave expression to the
thoughts and feelings of his individual personality rather than to the thoughts
and feelings of the community in general.
Ghalib
did not defy tradition but the carved out a new and different path for himself.
As a result he discovered new realms of thoughts and feelings and endowed new
dimensions to the ones already discovered. He added new shades of meaning to
words so much so that a study of his poetry becomes a veritable exercise in
appreciating meanings of meanings. What he says is of course significant but equally
significant is what he leaves unsaid. He creates a sense of the infinite while
dealing with the finite.
In
the last phase of his life Ghalib the poet became Ghalib the letter writer. The
sad music of Ghalib's soul expressing itself in the other harmony of prose
epitomizes not only his personal mood or temper but in fact the mood and temper
of a whole generation in the period after the great upheaval of 1857 which
brought an end to the Mughal rule in the Sub-Continent.
In
short Ghalib's world is a world inhabitated by intensely human experiences of a
lively and rich personality with a new and refreshing mode of thoughts and
feelings. Ghalib was conscious of his personality but he was not a prisoner of
it. He had the breadth of vision and a catholicity of outlook which enabled him
to see beyond himself. He had a truly sensitive, free and open mind ready to perceive
and imbibe. That is why while Ghalib always remained Ghalib, he could also be
you and me and many others. Like Shake-spear he was not wedded to a particular
view of life nor did he make an attempt to systematise his thinking. He was
large as life and had a real zest for it and a rare insight into it affairs. He
was neither an optimist, nor a pessimist. He was a through-bread realist in his
personal life as well as in his poetry and prose.
On the occasion of 150th Death Anniversary of Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib (Urdu Eminent Poet). Pakistan Post is issuing a Commemorative Postage Stamp of Rs.8/- denomination on February 15, 2019.
